Minimalist Home Office Hack

Description: My client was on a tiny budget and needed a guest room and home office combo space. She wanted a queen size bed, so that limited our square footage for the office. The space left was narrow because it was in front of the bed, but it was full of warm sunlight thanks to a floor to ceiling window beside it.

A full size desk and file cabinets would not work here, as there would be no room to maneuver around the bed and it would block the window. She needed a space that was beautiful enough to be housed in her guest room, yet functional enough to work every day with plenty of hidden storage.

I started with a large Lack wall shelf in birch, attaching it to the wall as a floating laptop desk. I chose birch because all of the components I used came in that color and it’s a very neutral color which keeps the area looking sleek and minimal.

Once the Lack was screwed into the studs I realized just how sleek and sturdy this wall shelf is. It holds her laptop, a heavy wireless printer and three magazine holders full to capacity without budging. It’s the bomb.

Next, I hung two Ribba picture ledges above the Lack to house her artwork and diplomas and make it look less like an office space.

Below the Lack, flanking an upholstered Henriksdal bar-height stool, is a Stall four drawer shoe cabinet on one side and a Bissa two drawer shoe cabinet on the other.

Standard filing cabinets would not have fit here- but the shoe cabinets are slim enough to allow ample space between the bed and the office station. The drawers fold out at an angle that allows plenty of storage inside. A simple hack to the drawer interiors was all I needed to make it work: I just left off the plastic separator attachments and wood inserts (used to separate two pairs of shoes) and kept the drawers hollow.

This left plenty of room to fit file folders, jars of office supplies, packs of printer paper and an assortment of books she needed on hand. I even used the top left drawer to hide the wifi router and messy cords.

I added a slim lamp that the client already had on hand and a few decorative accessories and left with a very happy client.

The cost (thanks to some lucky finds in the as-is section) came out to $260 for the entire office area. But even full price it should cost $300 or less.

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